FSA warns that chicken bacteria could be next meat scandal

Supermarkets have been urged to tackle “unacceptable” levels of a common food
poisoning bacteria found in poultry.

The poultry industry has been hit by record levels of campylobacterPhoto: Alamy

10:39AM GMT 23 Jan 2013

The Food Standards Agency warned that around two thirds of all raw, shop-bought chicken in the UK is contaminated by campylobacter, which affects an estimated 500,000 people a year and kills around 100.

It said not enough was being done by manufacturers to prevent the spread of the bacteria and has called a "summit" meeting of food retail leaders at which it will ask them to plough more money into fighting the problem, rather than treating the current contamination levels as acceptable.

Catherine Brown, chief executive of the FSA, told the Grocer magazine: “A lot of people have put effort in but it's not working and more people are getting ill.”

She expressed concerns with the pace of progress and said that both the poultry industry and retailers had key roles to play.

"There's a sense that they think it's acceptable, chicken is a tight margin product,” she added. “There is a lot of anxiety about the costs.

"Potentially the effect could be chicken taken off the shelves and that's not the way we want to go."

Brown admitted that the industry was not dealing adequately with the problem and said the FSA was investing significantly in research.

The agency is aiming to reduce the number of birds with the highest level of contamination from 27 per cent to 10 per cent of bird production by 2015.

Peter Bradnock, CEO of the British Poultry Council, insisted that the lack of progress was not for want of trying.

"We share her (Brown’s) frustration but she ignores the fact that science has not found an answer to tackle this problem and this is not to do with any lack of effort by manufacturers or retailers,” he said.

The campylobacter bacteria one of the main causes of food poisoning in the developed world.

Consuming meat which is contaminated with the bug can result in diarrhoea, cramps, fever and pain.

A study by Which? magazine last year found that one in five supermarket chickens is contaminated with bacteria.